International Biodiversity Congress to be Held at Dehradun

Thiruvananthapuram: The first-ever international biodiversity meet, aiming at creating awareness to shift towards a biodiversity-friendly society, will be conducted by International Biodiversity Congress (IBC) 2018 at the Forest Research Institute (FRI) at Dehradun, during October 4-6, announced Dr. Vandana Shiva, Chairperson for IBC 2018 and Managing Trustee, Navadanya, at a press conference in the city.

IBC is a joint initiative by Centre for Innovation in Science and Social Action (CISSA), Navdanya – a movement for the protection of biological and cultural diversity, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE, Dehradun), Wildlife Institute of India, Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board and Uttarakhand Council for Science and Technology. The focal theme of the event will be ‘Biodiversity for Ecological Civilisation: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.’

“The biodiversity congress aims at achieving sustainable development goals, both at national and international platforms. While a system based on fossil fuels leads to low productivity, on stressing on biodiversity results in true productivity. Fossil fuels have created a false idea of knowledge economy. They have made us think that the world is a machine,” said Shiva.

“We feel that this congress will sow seeds to reclaim India’s ecological civilisation, give hope to the younger generation and rejuvenate our true knowledge systems that are ecofriendly and demonstrate to the world the real way to live,” she added.

She stressed the importance of creating full employment with zero waste rather than zero employment and mountains of waste. Shiva also lauded the efforts of Kudumbashree units and said that biodiversity has helped increase rural income ten times.

“The first Biodiversity Congress was in 2010 at Thiruvananthapuram as that year witnessed a change in biodiversity on a global scale. We had sought the help of the government to check the damage done to biodiversity. Now, in 2018, not only have we failed to achieve biodiversity, but the situation has turned worse,” said Dr. Biju Kumar, Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Kerala and Secretary, CISSA.

“Considering the larger change to biodiversity, we decided to conduct this event on a global scale which will be attended by internationally acclaimed personalities in the field,” said Biju.

The congress will explore the multiple aspects of biodiversity contributing to human well-being and describes the direct and indirect factors contributing to biodiversity loss.The website and brochure of IBC 2018 were also launched at the press conference. Dr. Rakesh Shah, Chairman, Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board; S S Rasaily, Member Secretary, Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board; Dr. Vinod Bhatt, Director, Navdanya; and Dr. G G Gangadharan, President, CISSA were also present at the event.